What is The Sandbox? A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding the Metaverse’s Revolutionary Gaming Platform

The Sandbox: a virtual gaming platform

The Sandbox is a virtual gaming world first launched in 2018 by developer Pixowl. After the success of the mobile version of The Sandbox in previous years, the company expanded the reach of its product to a larger audience.

However, switching platforms can be challenging for any game developer, especially if there are popular games of the same genre occupying the niche. Developers today must find new ways to attract an audience. Some offer advanced cooperation modes, while others focus on giving players a creative outlet.

The Sandbox, however, combines both of these things, and allows its users to make money. Here’s how it works.

The concept and features of The Sandbox

The Sandbox is a virtual gaming world built on the Ethereum blockchain platform, and consists of countless virtual land plots. They are NFTs that players can customize in any way they want. Users can buy, sell, or rent these plots and even use them to construct various buildings and create new customized games and other user-generated content.

At its core, The Sandbox comprises three primary tools:

• VoxEdit. This product is a virtual editor that players can use to create 3D voxel models. The models are built out of voxels—tiny 3D pixels—which allow users to create a wide variety of game objects, from buildings to animated humans. After the objects are finished, users can incorporate them into the gaming world as unique NFT Assets.

• Marketplace. After creating voxel models, users can sell them in The Sandbox’s Marketplace. To do it, they first need to register the models on the blockchain by uploading them to an IPFS network for decentralized storage. This procedure allows users to prove ownership over their creations and use them as in-game NFT Assets to place them in their world or sell them in the Marketplace.

• Game Maker. Game Maker is a tool for building 3D games within The Sandbox. Users don’t need a coding background - the platform offers a wide range of user-friendly visual scripting tools.

In a nutshell, The Sandbox is a decentralized platform that allows its users to create NFTs and trade them for in-game tokens.

Creating and customizing your own virtual world

The Sandbox’s key selling point is the possibility of fully customizing players’ experience. On its face, the game appears as a large virtual world; but in fact it provides players with all the necessary tools to fill that world with whatever they want - buildings, animals, or even full-fledged 3D games.

This level of customization allows players to make the most out of the game without any restrictions. After buying or renting a land plot, players can tailor it to their wants and means. In addition to this, players can also visit the land plots of others and interact with different creations (“Assets”) to find inspiration for their own projects.

What makes The Sandbox stand out from other metaverses is that it rewards creativity. Players can earn crypto tokens by selling their Assets in the Marketplace, monetizing their games, or renting their land plots to other players.

Now you’ll learn exactly how earning money through The Sandbox works.

The Sandbox's non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain integration

The Sandbox metaverse is based on the Ethereum blockchain, which enables players to register every Asset they create in this gaming ecosystem on the blockchain and protect it from being copied.

The blockchain integration also allows The Sandbox to implement an innovative in-game economy that enables players to earn money. To support this unique economy, the game utilizes three types of non-fungible tokens:

• SAND. SAND is the metaverse’s main currency and supports the platform’s growth. All transactions between players are carried out in SAND. Players can use SAND to get access to custom-made games, create Avatars, and buy equipment and Assets from the Marketplace. Since the game is based on the blockchain, SAND is built on the Ethereum platform as an ERC-20 utility token, which means players can purchase it on cryptocurrency trading platforms. Players can also stake their SAND coins to receive passive revenue.

• LAND. While SAND is necessary to carry out in-game transactions, LAND is another Ethereum NFT that players must purchase to experience everything the game offers. LAND refers to real estate plots players buy within the gaming world. Each unit of LAND is 96 m2, so there’s plenty of room for players to create and place multiple Assets and games. The metaverse map consists of over 100 000 LANDs, and players can buy their individual units by waiting for the start of LAND sales on the map.

• Assets. Unlike SAND and LAND, Assets are non-fungible tokens that players create on their own and are part of the user-generated content. Assets are built in VoxEdit and then registered on the blockchain, securing the creators’ ownership of them. Players can sell their Assets in the Marketplace and transfer ownership to other players in exchange for SAND.

As you see, The Sandbox offers a complex monetary system that encourages players to truly engage with the platform and community to create a better gaming experience.

Playing and earning money in The Sandbox's metaverse

The Sandbox is not the first metaverse to integrate cryptocurrencies in its virtual world. The most notable examples of such cryptocurrencies include:

• Floki. Floki is not a traditional metaverse, but a specific digital ecosystem consisting of the game Valhalla, the marketplace FlokiPlaces, the crypto-learning platform University of Floki, Floki DeFi, and Floki NFT Collections. The ecosystem uses its original cryptocurrency, Floki Inu, which has become popular in the meme community.

• Decentraland (MANA). This is one of the first cryptocurrencies of the Decentraland cryptocurrency universe created by Meta Platforms. As the title suggests, the platform has no regulator. Users interact with each other by buying and selling digital assets. Decentraland uses the MANA coin, which also runs on the Ethereum platform. At the peak of its popularity in 2021, the coin's value grew by more than 60%. But, as is often the case with cryptocurrencies, good things end quickly. In 2022, the coin's price fell by more than 90%.

• Metahero. Metahero is a cryptocurrency coin implemented by Metahero, a company that creates 3D models from the real world. For example, if you want to exist in the metaverse, you can now digitize your image by creating a three-dimensional Avatar.

The Sandbox, however, is different from how all these platforms work. It is built like a game, and the platform’s primary goal is to provide its players with entertainment and creative outlets. The cryptocurrency aspect helps encourage players to continue developing the virtual world, and eventually connecting the game to reality to enhance the virtual reality experience.

In The Sandbox, there are multiple ways to earn money:

• building and selling Assets created in VoxEdit.

• renting out or selling LAND to other users.

• staking SAND to support the blockchain and receive passive income.

• developing 3D games with Game Maker and monetizing them to get paid when other users play them.

As you can see, The Sandbox offers much more elaborate ways to earn money through entertainment and encourages users to continue playing the game.

Future developments and potential impact of The Sandbox

The Sandbox metaverse has already partnered with multiple well-known brands, such as Hell’s Kitchen, Adidas, Atari, Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, Gucci, Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, and The Walking Dead. The number of potential partners (including Forbes) is expected to grow in the near future. This allows the creators to spread awareness about the game and attract new users. The more players participate in the game, the higher the price of the SAND coin climbs, making it even more profitable for players to continue playing the game.

Another strategy the platform employs is cooperation with other countries. The Sandbox metaverse has expanded its reach to Germany and Saudi Arabia.

The Sandbox metaverse stands poised to change how gaming and crypto trading platforms work. The combination of entertainment and trading can attract more people to trading cryptocurrencies, especially those who never thought of getting involved in it before. If the number of crypto traders/gamers increases dramatically, it can transform the crypto market entirely. Following updates about The Sandbox metaverse can help you adjust to potential changes.

Summary: why The Sandbox is the future of gaming

At the same time, it’s important to remember that this new metaverse is only starting to expand its reach to a larger audience. While the SAND coin has already been integrated into crypto trading platforms, its price is still unstable. However, with the game’s development, the capitalization of the leading coin, Sand, may also grow.

Investing in The Sandbox is like investing in a big venture project. You must answer the question of whether you believe that metaverses will continue rising. If the answer is yes, then The Sandbox is a good option for buying. But if you're still unsure, you can always rely on traditional trading to give you plenty of opportunities to make a substantial profit.